Knoxville (WVLT) - On the road to the White House, many presidential candidates are now fine-tuning their campaigns, while there's one potential candidate that's still being pursued.

A younger generation knows him from movies and television. Now former U.S. senator Fred Thompson from Tennessee is being seriously wooed for president by some old friends.

They made that evident with the official "Draft Fred Thompson" committee co-chaired by congressmen Zach Wamp and Jimmy Duncan. They say Thompson's appeal, goes way beyond his on-screen persona.

"When he comes into a room, he just takes over the room without even trying," Congressman Jimmy Duncan says.

"His leadership qualities, the characteristics, he brings are just unparalleled and unmatched anywhere," Dean Rice says.

So far, Thompson has not made any commitment one way or another. The issue here is support. The newly formed committee admits the goal is to recruit and organize citizens from both the public and private sectors into one leadership group, and in due time, that should help determine the final answer of running or not.

"From conversations I've had with him, I think he's very interested in this, and I think he wants to see if there's support out there for him to make a serious effort in running for president," Congressman Duncan continues.

And there's a lot of optimism the movement will pick up steam.

"I think it's a movement that could take off, but we will just have to see," Duncan continues.

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